Humidifier



Feb. 722, 1927.

C. J. RAMSBURG HUMIDIFIER Filed Jan. '5. 1926 .4 n J n m n I INVENTORPatented Feb. 22, 1927.

- UNITED-STATES :PATE'NT OFFICE.

CHARLES JOSEPH RAMSBUBG OF EDGFWOBTH, PENNSYLVANIA.

scummran.

' Application filed January 5, 1926. Seriai ii'o. 79,415,

' The present invention relates to humidifiers, and more especially to ahumidifier for humidiiying the atmosphere of inhabited rooms, such, forexample, as a dwelling house. v j

During the winter the houses and oflices in the northern part of theUnited States I arensually maintained at a temperature of 70 F. orabove.The result is that the humidity of the air is very low, approaching" adesert humidity" in dryness. While the outside air may have a humidityof 60 or .80'

house temperatures, the perheating of the air, because for the sameabsolute amount of water per unit volume,

the percentage humidity decreases with the temperature.

The high temperatures and low humidities at which the American peoplemaintain their houses are becomingto be recognized as seriouslyprejudicial to health. Varlous devices have been suggested to overcomethis condition and supply moisture to the air, but such devices haveusually been vir tually valueless because they have not supplied asufficient amount of moisture. Such devices as water pans in furnacesand water pans on radiators do not supply enough moisture, because inorder to maintain the atmosphere in an eight or ten room dwelling houseat a proper humidity in cold weather, several gallons of water should beevaporated per day. With the increased use of hot water or steamradiatorsfor house heating the problem is particularly diflicult,'be-

cause there is no central supply of air as in the case of a hot airfurnace which may be humidified and because pans or tanks of waterplacedon the radiators are ineffective.

and usually forgotten. p a

My humidifier is particularly designed to be put into houses having theheating plants already installed and will convert the exsmall drip, sayof about to 100 drops of water per minute. This amount of water issuificient to the atmosphere the percent, when this air isheated to theusua centage humidity is decreased due to the usual eight. or ten roomdwelling house at V I a humidity of about/t0 to 50% and at'a temperatureof about 7 0 F. 'As is well known,

if the humidity is increased to say 40, 50 or the atmosphere is not onlymore healthful to breathe, but the house will be comfortable at. a lowertemperature than where the humidity is low, say'lO to 20%'which is notunusual in -houses during the winter. Referring to the drawings whichillustrate the preferred embodiment of my invention,-

. Figure l-is an elevation partially in sectlon, through a portion of ahouse cellar 'showing the humidifier installed;

Figure 2'-is a vertical section through the humidifier;

Figure 3 is an'elevation of the-humidifier.

taken at right angles to the sectionof' Figure 2 and indicating itsinternal construction in I dotted lines.

Referring to the illustrated embodiment of, my invention, referencenumeral 1 indicates generally the humidifier. This humidifier may beplaced anywhere in a house or 1n auofiice such as being placed in one ofthe rooms. However, in the case of a dwelling house, it is preferablylocated in the cellar 2 and is connected by its flue 3 to discharge intoone of the living rooms 4 of the house. As shown in Figure 1 thehumidifier is supported on the cellar wall 5 at a con venient height.

I- found that there is suflici'ent diifusion of air through the ordinaryhouse so that a single humidifier discharging its humidified air intoone of the living rooms on the first floor is suflicient to maintain thedesired humidity throughout the house'.- The humidifier comprises achamber 6 which contains a hot plate 7 upon which the water drips and isevaporated and a gas burner 8 for heating the hot plate. The bot-' tomof the chamber 6 is open and it connected at its top to the flue .3which serves as a chimney to assist in maintaining 'a' good convectioncurrent of air through the hu V midifier chamber to carry ofithehumidified air. While it is preferred to'employ a fair- I 1y long flue 3particularly in cases where the humidifier is located in a cellar, ashorter flue might be used or the flue might be dispensed with in casethe humidifier is located directly in the room whose atmosphere is to behumidified.- It is preferred, however, to use the flue 3 in order t mman a?- tive convection current and guard against down drafts through thechamber 6.

A small and regulated flow or drip of water is supplied to the top ofthe hot plate 7 through. a drip valve 9 which may be either a needlevalve or preferably a valve havin a porous and adjustably compressiblefelt washer through which the water seeps. The valve 9 is connected to awater supply pipe 10. The drip from the talve 9 alls'for a shortdistance through the open air where it can be readily observed and thenumber of drops per minute counted, into a cup 11 and through a feedpipe 12 .to a point directl above the hot late' 7. The water may ripfrom the en of the feed pipe 10 upon the hot plate, although it ispreferred to feed the water down by means of a wick which will reventsplashing of the water or the formation of small globules of water whichmight dance along and off the edge of thehot platevbefore evaporation.

- Such small dancing lobules of water are section s familiar to anyone w0 has dropped water on -a hot stove lid. In order to furnish a suitablewick feed, a small piece'of wood 13 like a-match or a tooth pick isinserted in the lower end of the pi 11 and is su ported' by the hotplate. referably a sma disc or septum 14 of asbestos paper-is placed onthe center of the hot plate below the water drip to insure the evenspreading of the moisture without spattering or the formation of thedancing globules. r

The hot plate 7 is preferably of the form shown in the drawings andconsists of a flat central portion 15 surrounded by a downwardlydepending fluted flange 16. Beneath the edge of the flange 16 is anannular overflow an 17 having the U-shaped crossl iown in the drawing.An overflow pipe 18 is provided for discharging excess water if it fillsthe overflow pan .17. The overflow pan 17 is supported within thechamber 6 by suitable brackets 19 on the chamber wall. The hot plate 7is spaced above the overflow pan 17 by the supports 20 which allow afree space between the'top of the pan 17 and the hot plate 7; The gasburner 8, which is preferably a Bunsen burner, is supported by. itssupply pipe'21 which is secured at 22 through the wall of the chamber 6.The upper part of the burner 8 terminates at about the level of the topof the overflow pan 17 and discharges its flame into the concave lowerface of the hot plate 7. The products of combustion pass up, heati thecenter of the hot plate and then re out laterally and flow downwardly uner the lower edge 16' of the 16 and then upwardly over the top hot plateand into the flue 3. 'There is, of course, a considerable amount ofentrained air which pames around the burner Sand around the overflow pan17 and which and is further eva is carried along to form a con vectioncur rent which sweeps by the burner and over the top of the hot platealong with the gases of combustion, thus insuring a sufliciently largecurrent of air through the humidifier to insure a good distribution ofthe humidified air as it is discharged into the room. Moreover, sincethere is a considerable flow of air through the humidifier, the airdischar (1 into the room does not need to be as highly humidified aswould be the case in a humidifier which did not have a considerablecirculation of air through it. This obviates any danger of the depositof condensed moisture in the room nearthe discharge of the humidifier.

Normally the hot plate is maintained at such a temperature and the flowof water is so regulated that the water'is substantially all evaporatedfrom the center of the hot plate. However, if the flow of water isincreased or the gas flame cut down, the water may flow out and into thetroughs in the corrugated flange 16 where it is held rated. If the wateris not all evaporate in the troughs of the plate flange,eany excess willdrip into the overflow pan 17 where it is subject to still further evaoration.

The ove ow pan 17, with its U-shaped cromsection, insures a rapidcirculation of the products of combustion andentrained air under theedgeof the flange 16', thus insuring agood heat delivery to heat suchflange" to cause evaporation of any water collecting in its troughs, asit is well known that the absorption of heat b a surface is a. functionof the velocity of fl ow of a heating gas over the surface. Thedownwardly extending flange also directs the products of combustion andheated air against the surface of water in the pan 17 in case it is 4filled with. water, thus insuring further evaporation. The arrangementof the annular pan and the downwardly flanged hot plate has been foundto be very eflicient in protecting the. gas 'flame against accidentaldown drafts through the humidifying chamber. If down drafts occur, thedownwardly and outwardly extending flange 16 tends todeflect them downthrough the annular space 23 between the walls of the chamber 6 and theoutside of the pan'17 and to thus shield the flame of the burner 8.

The arrangement has also been found to be veny eflicient as anevaporator. It is found that a humidity of 40 to 50%ma be maintainedinan eight to ten room dwel g house in freezing weather with aconsumption of about 1 to 1% feet of natural as per hour. It will,therefore, be seen t at the expense of ne ligible. a

The products of combustion pass with the entrained air through the flue8 into the running the humidifier is I:

room which is to be humidified. With a good burner 8 the burning gas iscompletely converted into water vapor and carbondioxide, since thecombustible's in the gas are hydrogen and carbon. The amount of carbondioxide from the burning of one to two feet of gas per hour is not atall objectionable. The water formed by the burning of the hydrogen ofthe gas, of course, contributes to the humidit but moreimportant stillis the fact that t e hot. gases serve to mingle with and heat theentrained air passing through the humidifier and thus give a goodcirculation'of heated air over the evaporating surfaces and into theroom whose atmosphere is to be humidified.

The flow of a liquid such-as water from the house sup'ply'pipesis moreeasily and accurately regulable than the flow of a heating-gas. Itherefore prefer tosupply gas in excess of that requlred to evaporatethe maximum amount of water to. be used and to set the gas flame with afixed adjustment, and to regulate the amount of moisture supplied by thehumidifier by the water supply. A This can be very readily regulated bymeans of the valve- 9. The excess heat also Serves to produce a goodconvectlon current of air through the humidifien If desired a hygrometermay be employed to indicate t e humidity of the air in the house,although this is not necessary since the frosting of the window panesin. freezing weather is an indication .of suflicient humidity.Ordinarily, a humidity of about 40 to at 70 F. is satisfactory.

The tests of heating engineers show that there is a much largerinfiltration of air into an ordinary dwellin house than is generallysuspected, such i ltration serving to effect a complete chan e of airevery few hours. Since the outslde air in winter is cold andthereforewhen heated is very arid,

a considerable amount of water is.- necessary for satisfactoryhumldificatlon and this may amount to several gallons a day in a fair.

sized dwelling house. Since my humidifier may be connected directly to awater supply pipe, suflicient water is supplied, which is'not the casewhere attempts have. been made toward humidification by means of pansplaced in furnaces or on radiators.

While I have specifically illustrated and described the pre erredembodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that the invention isnot so limited, but may be otherwise embodied within the scope of thefollowing claims.

I claim:

1. A humidifier comprising a chamber, a hot plate in the chamber havinga flattened central portion and a downwardly extending flange at. itsedge spaced from the walls of the chamber to allow an air passagebetween the edges of the hot plate and the walls of thechamber, a gasburner beneath the hot plate and discharging its flame against thecentral portion of the hot plate within the downwardly extending flangededge, a shielding means spaced inwardly ,from the walls of the chamber.and also spaced vdownwardly from the edge of the flange on the hotplate, whereby the products of combustion are allowed to flow under theedge of the hot plate but down drafts are directed away from the flameand through the space between the shielding means and the sides of thechamber, and means for supplying a small regulated flow of water ontothe top of the hot plate.

2. A. humidifier comprising a chamber, a hot plate in the chamber havinga downwardl extending flange around its edge spa from the walls of thechamber to leave an air passage between the edge of the hot plate andthe chamber walls, an overflow pan supported in the chamber and spacedfrom the sides thereof, saidoverflow pan having a U -shapedcross-section and lo,- cated beneath the edge of the hot plate flange toreceive any water. dri therefrom,

.a gas burner beneath the hot p ate and arranged to discharge its flameagainst the .central portion of the hot plate, the hotplate flange andoverflow pan cooperating to cause the flow of the products .ofcombustion downwardly beneath the edge of the hot plate flange and intothe open top of the overflow pan, .and meansfor supplying a smallregulated flow of water to the top of 100

